Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.

Okay, as soon as I saw the first three words, I laughed out loud. Blue, Warm, and Deep…ummm, I have a dirty mind and I’m not afraid to admit it.

Okay, now back to a family friendly post. I need to learn how to stop stressing and really stop and smell the flowers. Though that’s easier said than done for an Italian/Sicilian Scorpio. It’s hard to not react violently and emotionally. It’s difficult to not want to wish bodily harm and death. It’s difficult to not focus all my hate and rage on something. It’s difficult to be in the same room as the person who has so horribly offended me.

I need to find a way though. I have to just stop and relax. I have to learn to take deepbreaths and just let them on their stupid and ignorant ways. Okay, so I’m still learning.

I am trying to calm down at home and have created a new system of talking/listening/following rules for my son. This bright idea popped in my head out of the blueand was an instant hit. Instead of repeating things 1,000 times and then yelling, I started a circle/plus system on a dry erase board.

He knows what expected of him, so I tell him twice and if he doesn’t listen he gets a circle. What does that mean? Each circle is a quarter that he owes me at the end of the night. He has learned to not yell, cry, or bribe the circle away, it will only add more circles.

If he listens the first time or is caught doing something good, he gets a plus sign. Each plus sign equals a quarter I owe him at the end of the day.

He can turn circles into plus signs by listening or getting caught doing something good. He LOVES to put a plus sign on the dry erase board when told.

He gets to earn money, which any soon-to-be 8 year old is motivated by and craves. Instead of yelling and screaming, there is a sweet, warmfeeling in this house.

Lord knows there needs to be less yelling in this home. Not only for stress relief, but with springtime the windows are open and I don’t want the neighbors to think we are killing each other.

Will it always work? Maybe? Maybe not? If he outgrows it, I’m hoping it’s not before being calm and listening has already been programmed into his mind and body.

BookwormMom

This blog will feature book reviews, recipes for my family of three, funny moments being married to a big kid while raising a singleton, and trying to follow a minimalism lifestyle.
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Formerly dinoheromommy.com